The Madaurus University (in Latin Madaurus, Madauros or Madaura) is a former university, one of the first on the African continent, of which only ruins remain, located in the city of M'daourouch in the wilaya of Souk Ahras in Algeria. It is often considered one of the earliest, if not the oldest, centers of higher learning in North Africa and the first in Africa, the university's construction dating back to the Roman era around 75 AD.
It was on the site of an ancient Numidian city from the <abbr>third</abbr> century <abbr>BC</abbr> that the Roman city of Madauros was founded in 75 AD under the Flavians. Its early public functions date from the Roman period between the 1st and 2nd centuries. The city is mentioned in ancient manuscripts from the <abbr>third</abbr> century, but fell into decay following the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb in the <abbr>seventh</abbr> century.
At the time, the university was considered a great centre of cultural influence and frequented by great men of letters, philosophers, mathematicians and rhetoricians of the ancient world such as the North African Christian theologian and philosopher Saint Augustine, the Numidian writer, orator and philosopher Apuleius (author of the Metamorphoses or the Golden Ass), the Roman orator and grammarian Maximus of Madaurus, and the writer, poet, music theorist and philosopher Martianus Capella.